Wooster High halts slide, slips past Orrville

ORRVILLE -- A team of streaks all season long, the latest one for the Wooster boys basketball team had them headed in the wrong direction.

It was far from easy -- or pretty -- but the Generals halted a three-game slide and earned a win over their archrivals to boot. Wooster overcame a four-point deficit midway through the fourth quarter, along with a whopping 23 turnovers, to get past Orrville 52-49 Saturday night at Bob Knight Gymnasium.

The Generals, now even at 5-5 in the Ohio Cardinal Conference and 9-7 overall, caught and passed the Red Riders (2-13, 1-9) when Von Blair made a steal, flew downcourt for a layup while fouled, and converted the free throw to put Wooster up 45-43 with 3:40 to play. The game was tied twice more, the last time with 1:40 remaining when Orrville's Kayronn Robinson banked a shot off the glass, but Wooster made 5-of-6 foul shots in the final minute and the Riders couldn't get off a potential tying 3-pointer in the waning seconds.

"It's Wooster-Orrville, and when you play your rivals, especially here, they'll play hard," Wooster coach Craig Martin said. "If we let them stay in the game, they'll play even harder.

"I'm proud of my guys from the standpoint that they could have folded, and sometimes this year we have, when they had the four-point lead in the fourth quarter. But the kids kept fighting and found a way to pull it out."

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Alexander Smith drove and scored on Orrville's first possession of the fourth quarter to give the Riders their first lead of the night at 39-37, after they tied the Generals for the first time on a foul-line jumper from Jonathan Landis to end the third period. Orrville

freshman Luke Smith banked in a short shot to put the Riders up 43-39 with 4:40 remaining.

But back-to-back three-point plays from Cameron Daugherty and Blair swung the advantage back to Wooster, setting up the fight to the final buzzer.

With the score knotted at 47-all, Daugherty split two free throws. Landis had his baseline jumper rim out, and Wooster's Grant Stokes dropped in two more free throws with 31 seconds left. When Orrville couldn't get an open look at a 3-pointer, Bryce Short drove for a layup with 16 seconds left, but Mason Tomblin, who tied Blair for team honors with 11 points, calmly swished two foul shots (0:13).

Tomblin then came up with a loose ball and was driving for the clinching two points, but he was called for traveling with 2.4 seconds on the clock. Orrville got the ball to halfcourt and called time with 1.3 seconds left, but Alexander Smith was surrounded 40 feet from the basket and couldn't manage a shot.

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"They play so hard, but just can't get over the hump," said Orrville coach Sly Slaughter of his team, which led Ashland late in the third quarter before falling Friday night, then rallied from a 12-point, second-quarter deficit against the Generals.

The Riders, missing top scorer Trevor Summers for the rest of the season after the junior's recent shoulder surgery, made 21 field goals to Wooster's 16, led by Landis with 13 points and Luke Smith with 10. But the bigger Generals drew Orrville fouls in the second half and then cashed in at the line, going 9-of-10 in the fourth quarter and 15-of-18 for the game.

"They did a good job getting to the line and we didn't," said Slaughter, whose Riders hit just 6-of-8 free throws. "We weren't as aggressive as we should have been.

"Obviously, we want to get a few wins to feel good about ourselves," Slaughter added. "Especially a tight game -- we need to win one of these."

"We were up 10 or 12, but Sly did a real good job mixing up his defenses," said Martin, as the Riders packed their zone defense inside to protect against the 6-foot-5 Daugherty and his teammates. "We let them speed us up, and then we started turning it over. Give them credit -- Coach Slaughter has them playing hard, even without Trevor Summers.

"The difference was, we did a good job at the foul line. They made more shots, but we stroked our free throws, especially at the end. Did we execute the best on offense? No, but we gutted it out."

Wooster, which outrebounded the Riders 33-22, had six players with three or more boards, led by Daugherty's six.

Mike Plant can be reached at 330-287-1649 or mplant@the-daily-record.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MPlantTDR.